We Think, By Golly, He Might Do It
by Pineapple Moon
Summary: In order to pass the eleventh grade, the principal is making Jess tutor some kid. In order to stay on the baseball team, Dean needs to raise his English grade up to a C. The rest, as they say, is history. First Installment of the series


_"His whole body shakes with the strain as he tries to lift something he knows he can't lift, something everybody knows he can't lift._

 _But, for just a second, when we hear the cement grind at our feet, we think, by golly, he might do it." -One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_

"No."

The principal levels Jess with a glare. "Are you interested in repeating your junior year? Because that's the only other option here, Mr. Mariano."

Jess scoffs and shakes his head. "How the hell am I failing anyway? I haven't gotten so much as a B on one test since arriving in this hick town. Hell, the lowest score I've gotten was a ninety-seven, and that's because the math teacher has it out for me."

"If you bothered to glance at a class syllabus, then you would know that test grades are only thirty percent of your final grade. Participation, homework, attendance, all of that makes up the other seventy percent." The principal takes a breath and folds his hands on top of his desk. "Look, Jess, you're obviously a very bright young man, and that's why I'm making an exception by offering you this chance to make up-"

"But by _tutoring?_ _Seriously?"_ Jess interrupts.

"It's obvious you know the material, your test grades can attest to that, and we are short tutors. All you have to do is meet up with a student outside of class every few days for an hour or two."

Jess lays back in his chair as he weighs his options. Spend a full extra year in this hellhole or waste a few hours a week with an idiot. He sighs, "When do I start?"

The principal smiles. "I'll send him in now." Jess doesn't bother to hide his annoyance as the principal gets on his phone and asks for someone to be sent into his office. He hangs up and turns his attention back to Jess. "Now, he only needs some extra help in English-"

There's a knock at the door. "Ms. Barry said you wanted to see me, sir?"

Oh nonononono, it can't be. Please tell him it's not who he thinks it is. "Ah, yes, Dean, come in. Have a seat." The principal gestures to the seat next to Jess.

"Ah, jeez."

Dean's smile falters as he sits, but keeps the pleasantries up in front of their audience. "Now, Dean, I heard you aren't doing too well in English, and as per our academic standards, if you wish to continue playing on the softball team, you need to get that grade up to at least a C by your next test at the end of the month. I assume you know Jess here?"

Dean forces a smile. "We've had a few run-ins." Jess forces a smile right back at him.

The principal stays oblivious to the tension building between the two. "Good, everything's in order then. Don't worry, Dean, Jess is one of our brightest - when he bothers to show up - you're in good hands. I'll leave the rest to you boys. Have a good day now."

Dean thanks the man for his time, while Jess gathers his stuff and gets out of there as fast as possible. Jess is already half way down the hall when he hears loud footsteps catch up to him. "Jess, wait."

He rolls his eyes as he stops, looking at him impatiently. "What?"

"We have to set a time to meet, I'm not psychic."

"Darn, looks like you'll have to cross that one off your list of future occupations."

Dean lets out a huff of breath and clenches the fist holding his backpack strap. "Can you be serious for two seconds of your life?"

Jess shrugs his shoulders. "My record so far is only 1.4 seconds, but by golly, I'll try."

"Listen, It's obvious neither of us want to do this, so let's just try and make it as painless as possible."

Jess drops the act. "Fine, meet me at the diner after school." He says as he turns away.

"Can't. I have baseball after school."

Jess groans. He turns around and starts to walk backwards. "What time does that finish?"

"Four."

"Then come to the diner at four. Now if you'll excuse me, I only have," Jess glances at his watch. "Ten minutes left to finish my lunch." Without waiting for a reply, Jess turns back around to head to the library for ten minutes of peace and quiet.

Jess breezes into the diner after school, not in the mood to talk with anyone. He almost makes it, but gets stopped by his uncle at the base of the stairs who's wearing a shit-eating grin. "Hey, Teach, I got an apple all shined up for you." He even has the gall to hold out an apple.

Jess drops his backpack by the counter. "How?"

Luke puts the apple back. "Your principal called. Looks like you should have done all that homework after all."

Jess collapse on a stool and buries his face on the counter. A muffled, "Shut up." Comes from him.

Luke leans his forearms on the counter. "Who's your unlucky victim?"

Jess lifts his head so that his chin is resting on his arms. "Dean." He spits the name out.

Luke winces as he stands up straight. He pats Jess on the shoulder. "That's rough, buddy. Things are pretty slow today, why don't you take this time to go upstairs and unwind. I'll send Dean up when he gets here."

It's times like these that Jess is grateful for Luke and his ability to know when the whole socializing thing gets to be too much for him. Jess mumbles a thanks, low enough so only Luke hears, and heads upstairs.

Dean's been dreading this whole Jess thing all through practise. The principal can't seriously expect _Jess_ to help him, the guy rarely shows up to class! And what was with the whole 'One of our brightest' crap? This entire thing is just going to blow up in their faces and Dean's going to get kicked off the baseball team. It wasn't enough that the guy is butting into his dating life, now he has to butt into his athletic one too!

Dean braces himself as he walks into Luke's, but doesn't spot the James Dean impersonator anywhere. He probably bailed, leaving Dean high and dry. "Hey, Luke?" Dean heads to the counter. "Have you seen Jess? I was supposed to meet him here."

Luke smiles as he looks up from an order form. "Dean, good to see you. He's right upstairs, only door on your right, can't miss it."

"Thanks."

Dean heads behind the curtain and up the stairs. He finds the door Luke was talking about that says, 'William's Hardware Office Private'. Even without Luke's instructions he would have guessed this is the right place going by the loud rock music alone. He tries knocking, but doesn't get a reply. He does this a few more times before giving up and just coming in anyway.

Dean finds Jess lounging on a bed in the corner, head bobbing to the music as he reads. "Hey, Jess?" Jess continues to read as Dean gets closer. He tries waving to get his attention and raising his voice. "Jess!" Right, a funny guy. Two can play at this game.

Dean strides forward and snatches the book out of his hands. Jess jumps and scrambles to turn his music off. "Jeez! Where a bell or something, you're gonna give a guy a heart attack."

"I've called your name multiple times now." Dean defends himself as he tosses the old paperback onto the bed.

Jess grabs the book and shoves it into his back pocket. "Whatever, let's just get this torture session done with."

"There's something we can agree on." Dean mutters as he sits at the kitchen table.

"So, what book is this test on?" Jess asks as he heads over to what Dean assumes is his closet.

"How do you not know what book we're reading? Rumor has it you get A's on every test. Don't tell me you just show up and ace a test without studying."

Jess glares. "What book?" He repeats.

Dean gives up. "Uh, _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."_

Jess pauses as he leans in the little doorway. "Right, change of plans. Come with me." He throws on his jean jacket as he heads for the door.

"Excuse me?" Dean stays where he is.

Jess pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. "Do you want help or not? Just leave your bag here and let's go, we're coming right back here anyway, we just need to go grab something first."

"Fine."

Dean follows the shorter man down the stairs and through the diner. "We'll be back in a few, Luke." Jess says over his shoulder.

Luke's wiping down a table and waves in acknowledgment.

They walk in silence across the town square and stop in front of the movie store. "What, you're just going to have me watch the movie instead of teaching me the material like you're suppose to?"

Jess rolls his eyes as the enter the store. "No, you're going to watch the movie first, _then_ read the book. For each chapter you read, you'll write out what's the same and what's different." Jess finds the movie and tosses it to Dean, who scrambles to catch it. "That should help you remember all the main ideas and facts. Then we'll move on to the harder stuff like the metaphors, similes, shit like that throughout the book." Dean stands there dumbfounded. If he didn't know any better, it almost sounds like Jess actually knows what he's talking about. "What? Is that gonna be too much? I already dumbed it down as much as I could for you."

Dean shakes his head and heads to the counter so Kirk can check him out. "No, I've just never heard you talk so much at once. I didn't know you were even capable of it." Dean lies.

"Yeah, real funny. I haven't heard that one before."

The walk back to Luke's is a silent one. Jess gets straight to work setting up the VCR as Dean awkwardly sits on the edge of the couch. "So," Dean breaks the silence. "Is that area over there the new part? From all the construction here a few weeks ago."

"Yup."

Dean nods. "Cool." He's saved from having to say anything else when Jess gets the movie started. Instead of sitting on the couch like Dean expected him too, he goes over to his side of the room and grabs a beat up spiral notebook and tosses it in Dean's lap.

"Take notes." Dean lets out a short laugh. "What?" Jess growls as he sits at the table, feet up on a chair and book already out.

Dean holds up the notebook. "Nothing, it's just, you're really taking this seriously."

"Don't get too excited, I just don't want to have to repeat the eleventh grade, and hey, if that means one less mindless idiot in the world then that's just a bonus." Jess turns his attention back to his book, turning his head to the side as he writes something in the margin.

Dean takes a beat to stare at Jess, never noticing how much the guy really reads.

An hour into the movie there's a light knock at the door. Luke comes in with two plates, each with a burger and fries. "And here Lorelai thought it would be a reenactment of one of the Saw movies up here. I thought you two might be getting hungry so I whipping something up real quick."

Dean pauses the movie and grins. "Thanks, Luke." He takes the offered plate and digs in.

Luke goes over to Jess, who hasn't moved so much as an inch the whole time. He sets the plate down in front of the other teen. "So, Taylor had a big fit today about how I have to go to this stupid town meeting tonight, something about how I'm 'A pillar of the business community'. Load of crap if you ask me." He mutters the last part. He then takes Jess's book so he has his full attention. "Caesar is in charge downstairs. I should be back in an hour, in that time I want you to have _at least_ eaten half of this burger. You are not a bird, your doctor wants you to stop eating like one."

"Alright, already. Jeez!" Dean hides his laugh behind his burger, he's never seen Jess this embarrassed before. Too bad he doesn't want anyone knowing the reason for him being here, or this would be perfect teasing fodder. Jess takes a huge bite of his burger. "There, happy?" He asks with his mouth full.

Luke rolls his eyes like this is a daily occurence. For all Dean knows, it is. "Ecstatic." Luke says in a deadpan tone as he hands the book back. He sends a wave to Dean as he heads for the door. "Be good." He says over his shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah. We'll have the strippers out before you get home."

Jess smirks while Luke just shakes his head. "Alright, funny guy, see you in an hour."

"See ya. Make sure to be extra annoying to Taylor for me."

Luke waves over his shoulder. "Will do."

The door closes softly behind him, leaving them in silence again. Figuring he can't eat and take notes, he brings his plate to the table and sits across from Jess. Now that Dean thinks about it, he's never seen Jess eat a full meal. Sure, he's seen him nibbling now and then, but never a real meal. Hell, he's never even seen him in the cafeteria at school.

"I do eat."

Dean jumps. "What?"

Jess marks his place in his book and turns his body to face Dean. "Luke made it sound like I'm some sort of anorexic, but I do eat. I just forget."

"How could you forget to eat?" Dean knows he's probably pushing it, and any minute now Jess will shut down and become monosyllabic guy again, but he honestly can't imagine just forgetting to eat.

Jess nibbles on a fry. "Liz wasn't exactly Susie Homemaker, so we didn't have food in the house very often. I got used to it." He shrugs as if talking about the weather.

"Liz is your mom, right?"

Jess chuckles as if Dean just told a joke. "In the broadest sense of the word, yes."

Dean's starting to wonder if maybe he was just a little too quick to write off Jess Mariano as some careless delinquent. He might just be starting to get a glimpse to some other side of Jess that only Rory and Luke ever seem to see.

"Now it's my turn to ask you something."

Dean's shocked by the request, but shrugs as he wipes his hands on a napkin. "Shoot."

"If you were doing so bad in English, why didn't you have Rory help you?"

There it is. Dean knew it was too easy to spend an evening with Jess without the topic of Rory coming up. "She tried, but it didn't help. She kept getting distracted and going off on random tangents. We could be talking about Shakespeare and then an hour later she's ranting about how underrated an author Olaf Stapledon is."

"In her defence, _Star Maker_ was a really good read. Easily in my top ten."

"The point is, she could never stay on a topic long enough for me to actually understand it."

Jess leans back in his seat. "What can I say? Some people are just not meant to teach."

"And you are? All you've done is put on a movie while you sit here and read."

"And how many notes have you taken so far? Because I've seen you fill _at least_ two pages full since you got here." Jess fires back.

"How would you know? You haven't moved from that spot the whole time."

"I have these two things called _eyes,_ dumbass! We may have expanded the space up here, but I can still see the couch from the kitchen table!"

Dean raises his hands in surrender. Who knew Jess would be so touchy about his teaching abilities. "Fine, whatever. I'm gonna go finish the movie."

"Fine."

Dean eyes Jess's plate, where his burger is still only missing the one bite from earlier. "Luke sounded pretty serious about you finishing your food."

Jess glares over the brim of his book. "Don't push it."

Dean just raises his hands again, letting the movie start up again. He fights the urge to grin when out of the corner of his eye he sees Jess take another bite of his burger.

Dean stretches as the final credits start rolling. Turning off the tv, he brings the notebook with him to the table. "There, all done."

Jess doesn't look up. "Gold star for you."

Dean shrugs. "What next?"

Jess rolls his eyes and closes his book. "I told you, now you read the book and, chapter by chapter, write out the differences and similarities. In fact…" He gets up and heads for his closet again. He pulls down a box and starts to root through it. Finding what he was looking for, he tosses it at Dean. "Use my copy. My notes should help out a bit."

Dean flips through the book and suppresses a gasp. "Wow," The book is filled with notes. He doesn't see a blank margin anywhere in the book. He looks up at Jess, but he has his back to Dean as he washes their plates. He finally forces himself to look away as he gets to work on the first chapter.

About twenty minutes later Luke comes bursting in, grumbling to himself. "How was the meeting, Mr. Pillar of the Business Community?" Jess asks from where he's been lounging on his bed. Dean looks up from his notes, interested himself.

"That damn Taylor!"

"Yeah, screw him!" Jess mocks. Luke stops his pacing to give Jess a warning look. Surprisingly, it has the desired effect and gets Jess to grow serious. "Okay, what did he do this time, Uncle Luke?"

Luke starts pacing again, adjusting his cap. "He had this brilliant idea to have the stupid egg hunt come through all the businesses! I can't have little brats with jam hands coming in and out of the diner, they could get hurt!" Dean looks over at Jess and mouths the words 'Jam hands?'. Jess shakes his head in a not-now fashion. "The diner can get busy and they would just get in the way! What if I tripped over one? Or what if someone drops a knife on them? Anyway," Luke waves his arms, signaling the end of that conversation. "This came in the mail for you. It's from your mom."

Luke drops a large yellow envelope in Jess's lap. "God, finally." Jess sits at the table with Dean and dumps out the contents, which look to be receipts?

Luke seems to find that weird too as he peers over Jess's shoulder. "Jess, why did Liz send you all these receipts?"

"To find out if she can finally afford that pony I've been wanting." He says sarcastically.

"Are you doing her taxes?!"

"If you knew what I was doing then why did you ask?"

"Because that's ridiculous! Jess, look at me right now." Jess tosses his pencil down and gives Luke his full attention. " _You_ are the child." Luke points at Jess. "It is not your job to file your mother's taxes. She's the adult, it's _her_ job to do that."

"But she doesn't know how! If I don't get it done, then who will?!"

"She can go to a H and R Block and have the nice people there do it for her, just like everybody else. In fact, give me this." Luke gathers all the papers together and takes them. He takes them over to a desk in the corner and picks up a phone. "That damn woman, if she weren't my own sister…" Luke mutters under his breath. "Come on, pick up, pick up- Finally! Liz!" He pauses as she says something. "No, you do not get to Big Brother me! What the hell's the matter with you?! Jess is your _son,_ not your _accountant!_ If you need help-"

The conversation gets cut off as Luke takes the call out in the hallway.

Dean gets all his stuff together. "It's getting pretty late, I should be heading home."

"Oh, yeah, the streets get pretty mean here in the Hollow after dark."

Dean takes a page out of Luke's book and ignores Jess's sarcasm. "Same time tomorrow?"

"Yup."

Dean nods, backpack slung over his shoulder. "Good luck. With that thing with your mom." He clarifies.

Jess waves him off. "Luke will take care of it."

Jess already has his attention on something else, so Dean nods again and leaves. He finds Luke standing outside the door, off the phone already. He looks frustrated, but that vanishes quickly when he spots Dean. "Heading out?"

"Yeah, my mom's expecting me."

"Yeah, of course she is." Luke pauses. "How was Jess? Things weren't too rough were they?" He asks in a low tone so they aren't overheard.

"He was fine, we got a lot done actually."

Luke nods. "Good, good. And, gosh how do I ask this without it sounding weird? Did he eat much? He didn't have you eat his food, did he?"

"No, he had the whole plate."

Dean's never seen Luke smile as much as he does at the news. "Really? That's great. It's been so hard trying to get him into the habit of eating full meals like a normal teenager. Hell, it's been hard trying to get him to do a lot of things like a normal teenager. Take this whole taxes fiasco, Liz tells me he's been doing her taxes since he was _twelve._ What twelve-year-old does his mother's taxes?" Luke seems to remember who he's talking to. "Sorry, I'll let you go. Also, could you maybe not mention this to anyone?"

Dean nods. "Yeah, of course. It's not my place to say anything."

Luke sighs. "Thanks."

Dean makes his way through the empty diner, a lot on his mind. One afternoon with Jess and he's seriously rethinking his stance on the town hoodlum. From the sound of it, _he_ was the parent growing up and his mom was the kid. Dean can't imagine his mom not having food in the house, or his dad having him do the taxes.

If that's the kind of life Jess lived, no wonder Luke is constantly coming to his defence. Everyone deserves to have at least one person in their corner.

Dean must seriously have something wrong with him. Normally he tries to avoid Jess at school, but today he's actively looking for him at lunch. He just couldn't stop thinking about how happy Luke was at the news that his nephew ate a full meal. With that in mind, Dean kept an eye out for Jess as he ate his lunch, but didn't see him anywhere.

Finally caving, he asks Lane, who mentions she usually sees Jess in the library at lunch. Peering through a window, he spots Jess at one of the tables in the back. With one last deep breath, he makes his way inside and sits across from Jess.

"Is that today's math homework?"

"No, you can't copy off me." Jess says as a greeting, not looking up.

Dean shakes his head. "I wasn't going to ask. You just don't strike me as the kind of person that does their homework through lunch a day early."

Jess slams his pencil down. "Listen here, just because you think you know a thing or two about my life before with my crazy mother does not make us friends. Just stay out of my way."

Dean scoffs. "Like I would want to be friends with you. I just saw you here and thought I would make some small talk. Besides, I was going to spend part of my lunch here anyway to catch up on some reading."

"Fine."

"Fine." Dean pulls out Jess's beat up copy and opens to where he left off last night. "Do you like mustard?" He asks a minute later.

That seems to throw Jess off. "What?"

"Mustard. A condiment, it's yellow, comes from a seed-"

"Yes, I know what mustard is and it's origin."

"Do you like it?"

Jess throws a hand up with a shrug. "Sure, I like mustard."

Dean digs into his bag again and pulls out a baggie with a sandwich. He tosses it in front of Jess. "My mom mixed up my sister's and I's lunch. I was just going to throw this away, but you can have it." Jess looks like he's about to call bullshit. "I swear, it has nothing to do with last night, I just don't like the idea of throwing out perfectly good food. If you really don't believe me you could go pay a visit to my sister's elementary school, I'm sure you'll find a turkey sandwich on rye with extra mayo in the garbage."

Jess eyes the sandwich, then grabs it without a word. He avoids eye contact with Dean the whole time. Dean just pretends to read as he watches the whole thing go down.

Dean finally starts to concentrate on his book when Jess surprises him by starting up the next conversation. "I don't like to do my homework at the diner. Whenever Luke sees me doing it he gets all giddy and won't stop grinning at me."

"He wants what's best for you. Rory told me how the whole town had a secret meeting about you when you first got here, he flipped out. Told them they should all be ashamed of themselves."

"Huh." Jess is staring down at his homework, but his mind is somewhere else completely. Now that the single syllables are out, Dean figures Jess is at his limits for talking.

Dean and Jess get into a solid routine for the rest of the week. About halfway through lunch, Dean goes to find Jess in the library where Dean always just so happens to have an extra sandwich, or he had a big breakfast and can't finish the rest of his lunch, and gives things to Jess who slowly but steadily eats all of it. They don't talk much, just work on whatever homework they have.

After school, Dean goes to softball practise then heads to the diner at four, where he reads and takes notes downstairs at the counter as Jess works with Luke. When there's a lull he tends to clarify things for Dean or has Dean copy whole passages down that he deems 'super important for later, don't worry about it'. Dean's been eating dinner every night upstairs in the apartment with Jess, with the occasional Luke when he manages to get a break from running the diner.

Saturday finally rolls around and Dean has a whole day planned with Rory.

"So," Rory swings their linked hands as they walk down the sidewalk. "Jess the drill sergeant let you have the day off?"

"How?"

Rory must have predicted his confusion because she's already answering him barely before he finishes getting the question out. "Luke told mom who then told me. Don't worry, we are the only ones in town that know you're being tutored by the town delinquent, Mom's wording, not mine."

"Better than expected. We're able to have full, civilized conversations without snapping at each other."

Rory adds a skip to her step. "I'm so happy! And it sounds to me that you have a Paris."

Dean chuckles. "A Paris? What does that mean?"

"You know, like me and Paris. We started as enemies then became friends."

Dean lets out a dry laugh. "Jess and I are in no way _close_ to being friends."

"Dean, you've had lunch _and_ dinner together every day for the whole week. Heck, you've spent more time with him than me, and I'm your girlfriend."

Dean's at a lost. He wants to say that he eats with Jess every chance he gets because Luke is worried, but then he would have to explain to Rory why Luke is concerned about Jess eating and he promised he wouldn't say anything to anyone. "Luke insists I stay for dinner." Dean settles on. It's not too far off from the truth to be considered a lie. "And Jess helps me out with math at lunch from time to time. Lane's told you how terrible of a teacher Mrs. Johnson is, Jess explains it better."

Rory nods with a poorly suppressed grin. "Sure."

"It's the truth."

"Okay, I believe you."

Dean still doesn't believe Rory, but something tells him the bigger deal he makes this, the more she's not going to believe him. "Good. Now, where do you want to go for lunch?"

"Luke's?"

Dean sighs. "I thought we just established I've been eating there every night."

Rory pouts. "But Luke makes the best coffee in town and with this dumb project I'm doing with Paris, I haven't had the chance to have any all week. Please?" She even starts fluttering her eyelashes.

"Fine." Dean says in defeat.

"Yay!"

The two head to Luke's and find a table. The place isn't too crowded so Luke is able to come straight to them. Jess spots them too, but is only able to nod in greeting as he's busy talking with Kirk.

"Dean? I thought you had a break from Jess today." Luke says in lieu of a greeting.

They both ignore Jess's shout of "Wow, rude! Tell me how you really feel, Uncle Luke."

"I do." Dean says with a chuckle. "But Rory needed coffee or she was going to collapse from caffeine deprivation."

Rory nods seriously. "It's been known to happen. I'll also have some Mac and Cheese."

"One coffee and Mac and Cheese, coming up. And you Dean?"

"I think I'll try that turkey burger you mentioned yesterday with a coke."

"Got it," Luke writes down their orders. "That'll be ready in a minute."

The two nod in thanks, then turn their attention to Jess, who looks to be about two seconds away from bashing his head against the nearest solid surface. "For the last time, Kirk, we do not sell salmon. We have _never_ served salmon, and we never _will_ serve salmon. Now please, for my sanity, just order something already."

Kirk continues to study the menu intensely. "Are you sure you don't sell salmon? I could have sworn I saw it on the menu the other day."

"Oy with the salmon! That's it! Luke, I'm taking my ten!"

"But I haven't ordered yet." Kirk complains.

"Bring it up with Luke." Jess says over his shoulder. He grabs a chair and pulls it up to the end of Dean and Rory's table.

"Hey, Jess, can you go change my order? I think I'll have some of that salmon I've heard so much about." Dean teases.

Jess glares at him in return. "Just for that, I'm gonna make you fail both English _and_ math."

Dean rolls his eyes. "I'm quaking in my boots."

"Here you guys are." Luke brings their drinks out. The two nod in thanks. "The food will be another few minutes. Hey, Jess, think you could run to the market real quick? We're out of cream." Jess groans in reply. "How 'bout this, you go get the cream and I'll let you have the rest of the day off."

"Fine." Jess reluctantly gets up.

"I'll come with you, I need to pick up my paycheck today before Taylor locks it in the safe again." Dean glances at Rory. "Is that okay?"

Rory nods. "Of course, go. Before Taylor gives you another lecture on time management."

Dean gives her a quick kiss before running out of the diner after Jess. They make small talk as they walk down the block. When they make it to Doose's, they get stopped by the owner out front.

"Not a step further, young man. I don't allow vandals in my store."

"You can't be serious, Taylor. Jess did one prank and now you're not letting him inside?" Dean's not sure who's more shocked, himself or Jess. He's not sure what possessed him to jump to Jess's defence, but it just didn't seem right. Sure, he was pissed when he had to scrub that stupid chalk off the ground, but in hindsight it really was just a stupid prank. Hell, before he had to clean it, he thought it was hilarious.

"As the owner of this establishment, I have the right to refuse service to anyone I see fit. And honestly, Dean, you're a smart kid, see reason. Hanging around this devient will only lead to trouble."

"Forget it, Dean. I know when I'm not wanted. I'll just wait out here and I'll pay you back for the cream."

Dean's shocked at how quick Jess is backing down. He looks back at Taylor's smug grin. "No. I'm not going to back down. Jess doesn't deserve to be treated this way. Just let him come in and get the stupid cream for Luke."

Taylor looks like he just took a bite of the world's most sour lemon. "Now listen here, I am your employer and I will not be talked to like that by my employee. As long as you are keeping that hooligan in your company, then I'm afraid you are no longer welcome in my store either."

Dean shrugs. "Then I guess you better start looking for a new bag boy. I'll be back for my final check later. Come on, Jess, let's get out of here."

Dean storms off, not looking to see if Jess is following. Soon he feels a tug on his arm, making him spin around in place. "What the hell did you just do, Forester? Go back and ask for your job back. Taylor likes you, I'm sure if you tell him you had a moment of insanity you'll be right back on his good side."

"No way, I'm done working for that jerk. Going around telling me I can't associate with certain people? That was crossing a line, even for him. And he's acting like _I'm_ the smart one? You are way smarter than me! Only a total math wiz could figure out how to file taxes when they're twelve years old. And-"

"Whoa!" Jess interrupts. "How the hell did you know I was doing Liz's taxes since I was twelve? I never told you that."

"Luke told me." Dean admits reluctantly.

"He had no right to tell you that! I thought I told you to stay out of my life! I don't need you coming in on your high horse like some knight in shining armour! I'm not a damsel, I don't need rescuing! I've been taking care of myself my whole life just fine without you! So screw you!"

"You know what? Screw you too! I thought we were half way from becoming something like friends, but now I remember why I avoided you as much as possible! You're _poison,_ Mariano! No wonder your mother sent you here, she probably couldn't stand to be around you either!"

The only sound is of the heavy breathing between the two. After the words left his mouth he already regretted them, but he's too mad to apologize. Jess sends him a look of pure hatred, and for a second Dean thinks Jess is just going to deck him here and now. He wouldn't blame him if he did, he knew bringing Liz into this was a low blow.

Instead Jess pushes past him with a whispered, "Fuck you."

In a blind rage, Jess foregoes returning to the diner and instead heads to the bridge, slumping down in his usual spot. He feels a little bad for not getting Luke his cream, but with his current mood he knows they would just end up having a screaming match in the middle of the diner. He'll apologize tonight after he calms down.

God! And what was Luke thinking, telling Dean about how he grew up? It's none of their business, neither of them.

He grabs some pebbles and starts to throw them in the lake. He feels a little better when he gets close to a lilypad and forces a frog to move from its perch.

"Damn, that frog look at you funny or something?"

Great, just what he needs. He can feel his temper flare up again. "Leave me alone, Lorelai. I'm not in the mood for our usual verbal sparring session."

She sits down anyway, a good foot away from him. "Good thing that's why I'm not here then."

He throws another pebble. "Then why are you here? You get off on seeing someone when they're down?"

"Maybe I just really need help on my taxes this year and I heard you're the guy to talk about that, math wiz." She's joking, but Jess still glares at her. At the look on his face she grows serious for once. "Believe it or not, I came to see if you were okay. I overheard everything from inside the market."

Jess throws the rest of the pebbles in the water at once in a fit of anger. "Damn it! Why can't you people leave well enough alone?! I'm not some naive idiot! I know the way I was raised wasn't right! I'm sick of everyone parading it in my face like I'm some clueless idiot!"

Lorelai uses a calming voice that he's only ever heard her use on Rory before. "Honey, no one thinks you're a clueless idiot. Ever think people are helping you because they _care_ about you? And trust me, I understand the shame you feel in the pit of your stomach when people send you these looks of pity." Jess focuses on his feet swaying back and forth as they skim the top of the water. Something shifts in Lorelai as she stands uruptly. "Get up, I want to show you something that even Luke doesn't know about."

Jess stays put. A juvenile part of him wants to know what she has in store, at the very least to know something about her that Luke doesn't. But the more prideful side of him refuses to move.

"C'mon, this is not up for discussion, up."

Now Jess sees where Rory got her stubborn streak. With a sigh, he gets up slowly. "God, fine woman, I'll go with you if it'll get you to shut up."

"Whatever you say. My jeep is this way. Don't give me that look, it's only a five minute drive."

Jess stuffs his hands in his pockets as he follows her without a word. The five minute drive is one of the most awkward in his life, but he doesn't have anything to say to her and he feels if he tries to force a conversation it will only make it that much more awkward.

His curiosity grows when they pull up to the Independence Inn and she leads him behind the building to a shed. "You brought me out here to show me a tool shed?" He breaks the silence.

Lorelai crosses her arms and bites her lip. If he didn't know any better, it almost looks like she's nervous. But the great Lorelai Gilmore is never nervous, at least never around him.

"Not just any tool shed." She opens the door to show him the dusty inside. Next to the tools he figured he'd find is a bed. Across the room a curtain is hanging on a rod, and when he pushes it aside he finds a bathtub. He turns back to Lorelai who hasn't moved from the doorway. "This is where Rory grew up for the first eight years of her life. To her, it was fun and an adventure, but I knew it was no place for a kid. I knew it, and everyone else that worked with me at the Independence Inn knew it too. I used to hate all the looks of pity I got, it was like they would stare at me and all I heard was, 'There's that teenage mom who lives in the potting shed with her three month old daughter.'"

Jess grazes his hand over a post that shows Rory's height, unable to look her in the eye. "What changed?"

"I started to accept help. Sookie helped me make a down payment on a house, so Rory got a real bathroom with solid walls instead of cloth ones. People gave me furniture, gave Rory clothes when she outgrew her old ones so that I didn't have to choose between keeping her clothed or fed. My life got easier." She pauses, letting it all sink in for him. "Look, you don't need to accept everyone with open arms. You can start small, maybe let Luke in a little more. I've never seen him try so hard with another person as he has with you. He loves you so much, and just wants to see you happy and with the life you deserve."

He finally looks up at her. "What if the crappy life I have is exactly what I deserve?"

She shakes her head with a small smile. "We both know that's not true."

Luke checks his watch for the third time in the last hour.

"You got a hot date?" Lorelai asks from her spot at the counter.

"What?"

"It's just, you keep checking your watch, so- sorry, bad joke. Luke, he's fine, he's just taking a walk to clear his head."

"About that, why did you take him to the Inn again? What could you have possibly shown him that would make him think this much?"

"That is something between me and your nephew. Trust me, we had a good bonding session, not one insult was thrown by either side."

Luke scoffs as he wipes the same spot on the counter that he's been wiping for the past ten minutes. "You and Jess bonding? Are you sure one or both of you weren't drugged?"

Lorelai opens her mouth, no doubt about to make some sort of witty remark full of pop culture references that he doesn't know, when he gets distracted by the bell to the door ringing. The object of their conversation comes walking in. He has his hands stuffed in his pockets and his head hanging so he doesn't make eye contact with anyone. Also, the closer Luke looks, he could swear Jess's eyes are a little red like he'd been crying. He makes a beeline for the stairs and Luke is itching to go follow him, but gets stopped by a hand on his arm.

"Give him a few minutes alone." Lorelai advices.

"But-"

"Luke, I am the leading expert on sulking teenagers. He will be much easier to handle if you let him get settled upstairs and don't jump on him the second he walks through the door."

Luke tosses the rag down. "God, I knew that punk was trouble. From the second he started dating Rory I told you he was trouble. He gets involved with Jess for a week, and now I have an upset kid upstairs because of him."

Lorelai holds up her hands. "Whoa, rewind there. How exactly is this Dean's fault? Taylor was the one that wouldn't let Jess in the store."

Luke can't believe Lorelai is defending that jerk. "That floppy-haired punk called my kid _poison._ Now, I'll be the first to admit Jess is no saint, but he's still a good kid."

"Calm down, I'm not saying Dean is completely innocent, he crossed a line when he said all those mean things to Jess. I'm just asking for you to cut Dean a little slack here. He stood up for Jess against Taylor and basically lost his job for it."

Luke sighs. "Fine, but I still don't want to see him anywhere near here or Jess for awhile."

"That might be a little hard since the two go to school together."

"Then until Monday." Luke settles on.

Lorelai nods. "I'll be sure to pass on the message." She checks her watch. "I believe a sufficient amount of time has passed if you want to go up and check on Jess. Go be Mr. Dad, and remember to stay calm, yelling won't solve anything."

Luke ignores the dad comment, no matter how much it leaves a warm and fuzzy feeling in his stomach. "Caesar, I'll be back in a minute!" He calls out before running up the stairs.

Before opening the door, he pauses to take a deep breath. "Stay calm." He whispers to himself. Knocking on the door lightly, he slowly opens the door and walks in. He finds Jess sitting on the desk by the window smoking a cigarette. He almost starts scolding Jess for it, but stops himself. Fighting over that right now will only make Jess that much harder to talk to. Instead he wanders over, trying to play it cool. "Just one." He makes a mental note to get on Jess about where he got that pack later.

Luke expects Jess to argue, but he only nods. "Okay."

"You wanna talk about what happened today?"

"Nope."

"Are you sure?"

"Yup." Jess continues to stare out the window, watching as Taylor orders Kirk on where to hide each egg for the annual egg hunt.

"Me and the other business owners talked Taylor out of having the egg hunt expand into the stores and restaurants. Part of the deal though is that I have to put up some paper rabbit tomorrow. I'm pretty sure that's what Taylor was after all along because he gave up as soon as I offered."

"Huh." Jess says as he flicks some ash out the window.

Luke just wants to shake the kid, get him to scream, yell, kick. Anything would be better than this apathetic shell. Screw calm, he tried to do it Lorelai's way and that didn't work, so now's the time to do it his way. He grabs the cigarette out of Jess's hand and tosses it out the window. _That_ gets a reaction out of him.

"Hey! You said I could have one!"

"Too bad." He holds out his hand. "Now give me the rest."

"I don't-"

"Do not lie to me, Jess. Give it." Jess sighs and pulls the pack out of his pocket. Luke peeks inside and is relieved to only see one is missing. Stuffing the pack into his pocket, he crosses his arms. "Now talk to me. How can I fix this thing? Should I call the school, have them match you up with a different kid? Switch your classes around so you and Dean don't ever have to cross paths? Tell me and it's done."

"No! God, Dean isn't the problem!" Jess leaps up from his perch on the desk and starts to pace.

"Then what _is?_ Talk to me, kid. I can't help you if I don't know the problem."

"It's what he said!"

"What he said is wrong, I know that. Do you want me to go talk to him? Talk to his parents?"

"No!" Jess runs his hands through his hair with a growl of frustration. "You got it backwards! He was right! About _all_ of it! I am poison to everyone! I start hanging around Dean and he loses his job! I start living with you and the whole town turns against you like something out of _To Kill a Mockingbird!_ You had to buy the building next door just so we had enough room for my own crap! And- and the worst part?! He was even right about Liz! She didn't want me! She _never_ wanted me! I'm just this stupid, screwed up kid that she shipped off the first chance she got! I'm worthless and a waste of space and-"

"Hey, you are _none_ of those things." Luke cuts him off firmly. He grabs both sides of Jess's face and wipes his tears with his thumbs. "You are not a waste of space or worthless or stupid or screwed up. And you are most definitely _not_ poison. You are the best thing to ever happen to me and I can't imagine my life without you." Luke pulls him into a hug, one of his hands gripping the back of Jess's head. He feels Jess grip his shirt and hears sniffling coming from him.

"Why can't I just be normal?" Jess asks in a small voice, his face buried into Luke's shoulder. He's never seen Jess this vulnerable. He always acts so grown up, it reminds him that Jess is still just a kid.

Luke uses his other hand to rub up and down Jess's back. "Have you seen this town? No one in this insane asylum of a town is normal, you fit right in."

Luke holds him until the shaking in Jess's shoulder's from his silent sobs slow down, and then stop. He pulls Jess back and keeps his hands on Jess's shoulders. Jess sniffs, scrubbing the tears off his red, blotchy face. Luke is again struck by how young he looks. "Don't worry about Dean, he'll find another job, a better one in fact, one that is away from Taylor. And you definitely don't need to worry about me. With or without you, the town would still find something to get on me about, they've been doing it for twenty years. And most of all, don't worry about me spending money on you. We needed a bigger place so I made it happen. One of the main rules in the guardian handbook is for the guardian, me, to provide for the kid, which is you."

"Did you read this handbook before or after you pushed me in the lake?" Jess asks with a sly grin. And boy if Luke isn't glad to see that grin again.

Luke shakes his head with a light chuckle. "You're never gonna let me forget that, are you?"

"When I die, I want my tombstone to read 'Luke pushed me in the lake that one time'."

Luke holds on to this light moment for as long as he can before he grows somber again. He needs to make sure Jess understands this next part. "Jess, listen. I don't pretend to understand what's going on with your mother. As much as I hate to admit it, she is one of those people that shouldn't be a mother. Don't get me wrong, I can tell you for a fact that she loves you, but some part of her knew she couldn't be the mom you needed, and that's why she sent you here. To give you a chance at a life you deserve. You got me?"

Jess swipes at his eyes again as he nods. "Yeah, I got you."

Luke finally feels like he can breath. "Good, that's good. And, incase it wasn't a given already, you will _always_ have a place here with me. If anything comes up like this again, big or small, please please _please_ come talk to me or Lorelai or anyone you feel comfortable with, just don't keep it in anymore."

Jess nods wordlessly.

"Promise me."

"I promise."

Now that Jess has calmed down, Luke's not sure what to do next. He holds out his hand awkwardly, trying to decide his next course of action. "Ah, what the hell." He mutters under his breath. He pulls Jess close to him for another hug. After a moment's hesitation, Luke is relieved to feel Jess hug back. "Love you, kid." Luke whispers, planting a quick kiss on the side of his head.

Jess pulls away slowly, scratching the back of his head and looking everywhere but at Luke. "Yeah, love you too, Uncle Luke."

Luke clears his throat and adjusts his cap to give his hands something to do. "So, um, my offer still stands if you want to take the rest of the day off."

"Actually, I think I'll come and finish my shift, if that's alright with you."

"No, that's fine. Great. Super."

Jess grins. "You're extremely uncomfortable now, aren't you?"

Luke sighs in relief. "God, yes. When there's a crisis, great, I'll deal with it. But afterwards, things get weird and I'm not sure what to do next. The only other experience I have in this kind of thing is with Rory, and the biggest thing that happened to her is when she spilled soda on her book when she was ten, and even then Lorelai took over when she got back from the bathroom." Luke takes a breath. "I guess what I'm getting at here is that this is all new to me, but I'm trying. I'm really trying."

"Guess this is new territory for both of us then. And as a show of good faith," Jess reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pack of cigarettes. He tosses them to Luke, and when he catches them he realizes they are the same ones he took from him earlier. He checks his pocket just to be sure, and yup, it's missing. He sends Jess a warning look.

"How- When? I _just_ took these from you."

Jess raises his hands with a small shrug. "Magic." He says as he wiggles his fingers.

"Well, keep the magic for kids birthdays, Houdini."

"Habit, won't happen again."

Luke stuffs the pack in his pocket, where hopefully it will stay this time. "Better be. I told Caesar that I'd only be a few minutes. I better get back downstairs."

"I'll be down in a few."

Luke pats him on the shoulder as he passes. He pauses at the door. "And you're sure you're okay?"

Jess gives Luke a rare, genuine smile. "I am now. Thanks."

Luke nods. "Good, I'm glad, and you'll remember to-"

Jess rolls his eyes. "Yes, I'll come to you if anything else comes up. Now go, before Caesar decides to quit."

Luke shakes his head and leaves. When he returns to the diner he finds Lorelai exactly where he left her. "So, how'd it go?" She asks in a singsong voice.

"Don't you have anything better to do? I thought you had a job."

"It's my day off, silly. And stop trying to change the subject, did you to have a _Leave it to Beaver_ moment, or was it more like Angelina Jolie and Jon Voight?"

Luke grabs his rag and throws it over his shoulder. "I don't know what any of that means."

Lorelai sighs and rolls her eyes, the same way she always does when he doesn't understand her references. "Was it good or bad?" She simplifies.

Luke doesn't even need to think about it. "Good. It was good."

Lorelai smiles at him. "Parenthood looks good on you." She says before taking a sip of her coffee.

Luke scoffs as he makes a fresh pot of coffee. "I have no idea what the hell I'm doing."

Lorelai leans forward on the counter. "I'll let you in on a little secret, there is not one parent on the face of this Earth that knows what they're doing, and if they say they do they're lying."

Luke pauses and glances up from the coffee machine. "Even you?"

She doesn't hesitate. "Especially me. You can check with Rory, she keeps a list."

"A list?"

"Of all things she's going to bring up in therapy when she's an adult." She clarifies. She smiles over his shoulder. "Hey, Jess. You start your list yet?"

Luke peeks at Jess, trying not to be too obvious. He can't even tell the teen was having a minor breakdown upstairs only five minutes ago. He's washed his face, changed his clothes, and fixed his hair back into the artful birds nest he thinks looks cool. "Yup. First thing on there is how Luke pushed me in a lake."

"You pushed him in a lake?" Kirk asks from his table.

Luke glares at him. "Shut up, Kirk, or you're next." Kirk goes back to his food, scared to look him in the eye.

"See, that's where you got it wrong. You want to start small and then work your way up to the big things, that way you don't scare the therapist away." Lorelai continues.

"So I should lead with how he always snatches my book out of my hand and then finish with the lake shoving?"

Lorelai points. "Now you're learnin', kid."

Luke shakes his head at their antics. "I think I liked it better when you two didn't get along." He mutters.

"Oh, sorry, how about, you darn kid, blasting your devil music." Lorelai shakes her fist at Jess. The teen doesn't react, distracted by something outside. "See, Jess, now this is the part where you curse adults and how we ruined the economy for you and how dare we side with the man."

Jess ignores her as he heads for the door. "I have to go talk to someone." He doesn't wait for a reply, already out the door.

"What? Where's he going now?" Luke asks, about to run out the diner, but he gets stopped by Lorelai again.

"Give him a chance, just watch." Luke growls, but does as she says, watching Jess walk up to a sad Dean.

"He's been hovering outside the whole time, I'm surprised you didn't see him and chase him off with a stick."

Luke doesn't say anything, but after one look at Dean he knows he wouldn't be able to do that. The kid looks like someone came up and kicked his puppy, his floppy hair in his face and his hands in his pockets. God, he's gone soft.

He watches the two talk, ready to run out at a moment's notice, but it doesn't seem like there's any fighting yet, at least not physically.

"They're both apologizing." Lorelai says.

"How can you tell?"

"I _was_ a teenage girl once, we all know how to read lips. It's a requirement in high school."

They watch for another minute. "What are they saying now?"

"Um," Lorelai squints for a second. "Jess is asking if Dean wants to come in and get the lunch he never got," Luke believes her as Jess just pointed to the diner with his thumb. "And Dean is saying he needs to get back to Rory, but will see him Monday for lunch."

That surprises Luke. "They eat lunch together?"

Lorelai shrugs. "I guess so. Just make sure Jess doesn't join a secret society at school, or the next thing you know you'll get a call in the middle of the night because he broke into the principal's office and rang a bell."

Luke wrinkles his brow. "Do I wanna know?"

Lorelai shakes her head as Jess comes back in. Luke points at him. "No joining secret societies."

Jess freezes in place. "Darn." He snaps his fingers after he recovers. "Now how am I going to spend my weekends?"

Luke tosses him a rag. "Go clear the table by the window, wise guy."

"You good now?" Lorelai whispers.

He nods. "Yes, you may leave. Thanks."

She stands, collecting her purse. "All in a day's work." She waves. "Bye, Jess."

He looks up from the table he's wiping. "Whatever."

"Jess." Luke warns, secretly glad things are getting back to normal.

"Hope you have a mighty fine day, Ms. Gilmore." Jess says sarcastically.

Lorelai snorts as she heads out the door.

 **One month later**

Jess meanders into the diner after school, storing his backpack behind the curtain so he can take it upstairs later. He hates working right after school, it's busy and he usually has to serve the idiots he was just forced to spend six hours with.

"Hey, Jess. How was school?" Luke greets him. He's been doing this all month, ever since his stupid freakout. He's probably had more conversations with his uncle this past month than the entire time he's been here combined.

"Meh. Same old, same old." Jess answers as he grabs the coffee pot and goes around to give people refills. He learned early on that it's easier and quicker if he just answers the questions and let's Luke get it all out of his system. It's definitely _not_ because he's come to like this new routine and he'll deny it until he's blue in the face.

"Didn't you and Dean have that English test today? The one that decides if Dean can keep playing on the softball team?" Jess knows for a fact that Luke knows it was today. On top of the constant probing into his life, Luke has also started joining Jess for dinner every day, letting Ceasar run the place for an hour while he eats. Last night Dean had been extremely nervous, going over all his notes at dinner until Luke took them away. That didn't stop him, because once the notes were gone, he started asking Jess all sorts of questions. Even though it's one of his favorites, if Jess ever sees _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_ again it'll be too soon.

"Yup."

"How'd you do?" Jess scoffs and stops what he's doing to give Luke his best 'are you kidding me?' look. Luke rolls his eyes. "Just humor me? I didn't even know you did well on tests until that call from your principal."

Jess shrugs, putting the coffee pot back. "It's a passing grade."

"Jess."

"God, fine, I'll tell you if it gets you off my back." Jess takes a breath, knowing Luke won't let this go even after he knows. "I got 105%."

"What?! How?"

Yup, Jess called it. "There was an extra credit question. Can we drop this now?"

Luke is still grinning like a loon. "Jess, I am very proud of you."

Jess feels heat rise to his cheeks. "Yeah, whatever. I'm gonna go get more ketchup from the back."

Luke still manages to pinch him on the cheek as he passes by, trying to keep the gag going. "That's my little brainiac."

Jess bats him away, speeding past him. "God, you're such a freak!"

Luke only laughs in reply, not following Jess into the back room.

After baseball practise, Dean goes straight to the diner, almost out of habit than anything else. Not many people are in the diner since it's between the lunch and dinner crowds. Dean sits at the counter in his usual spot at the end.

"Hey, Dean. Hungry?" Luke greets him, not looking up from a stack of receipts he's sorting through. Jess nods in greeting too, busy refilling all the salt and pepper shakers.

"Fries please?"

"Got it."

Luke goes off to the kitchen. Dean starts helping Jess out. "I'm guessing by the time that you got a good enough grade to keep playing softball?" Dean's noticed over the course of a month that Jess has gotten more comfortable starting conversations with him, something he doesn't do very often with very many people.

"Yeah, how'd you do?" Luke asks, poking his head out from the kitchen.

"Privacy, Uncle Luke, ever heard of it? It's like he was raised in a barn." Jess shakes his head in mock disappointment while Luke scowls at him.

Dean laughs, used to this type of thing. "I got an A-, best grade I've ever gotten on an English test."

Luke comes out with a plate of fries. "Great job, Dean. These are on the house."

"Awesome, man. Thanks!" Dean digs in, hungry from practise. The bell on the door rings as people come in, so Luke heads over to take their orders, giving the two a little more privacy. "Seriously, Jess, I couldn't have done this without you. Thanks for all the help."

Jess shrugs, stealing a fry. "It was nothing. You did all the work, and it helped that you weren't completely a mindless idiot."

"Don't sell yourself short, dude. You're the one that set up all the information so it's easier to understand." Jess shrugs again, focusing solely on the salt shakers.

Dean tries to say something else, but gets interrupted by the door. "Hello, diner boys!" Lorelai announces with Rory by her side. "We require food and coffee, stat." Lorelai collapses on the bar stool, nearly knocking over Jess's salt shakers, which earns her a glare, while Rory sits down next to Dean more calmly. She sends Jess an apologetic look, which calms him down a little.

"Diner boys?" Luke questions as he gets their coffee.

"Well, Rory and I are the Gilmore girls, so that makes you and Jess the diner boys. And Dean is an honorary diner boy since he's been spending so much time here getting his learning on." Lorelai explains.

Luke rolls his eyes. "That's ridiculous."

The two start bickering more, but Dean tunes them out as Rory turns to him and Jess. "Ignore her, she hasn't had coffee since this morning."

"Sounds pretty dangerous. Thought the Inn kept an emergency reserve just for her." Jess jokes as he takes another fry. Dean bats him away. He's seriously hungry!

"Sookie and I tried, but Michel wouldn't allow it. Said the money needs to go towards the guests' needs over hers, hogwash if you ask me." Rory says mockingly.

A customer comes up to the counter. "Excuse me, but could I have one of those salt shakers?"

"You'll get it when I'm done." Jess glares.

"But you've just been standing here talking and half of them are full already-"

"Go complain to someone who cares, this stuff is terrible for you anyway."

The customer goes back to his table in a huff. Dean scoffs. "Yeah, who needs good customer service anyway." He jokes. Jess steals another fry with a grin. When Dean pulls the plate away from him, Rory goes and steals one. "Would you two quit?! You're like a couple vultures."

"Leave Dean's food alone." Luke comes to his rescue, giving Rory and Lorelai their orders. "Dean, could you start setting out the full salt and pepper shakers, starting with the man who wanted salt to begin with?"

Dean wipes his hands on a napkin. "Yeah, no problem." He gets to work, smiling extra politely to the man Jess had been rude to earlier, which only earns him a scowl.

"See, this is why Dean is an honorary diner boy." Lorelai points out, mouth full of food.

"Would you drop it with the nicknames already?" Luke complains.

"But Uncle Luke, I already got the matching jerseys and everything."

Luke points at Jess. "You are done talking, and for the last time, it's just Luke."

Dean laughs to himself as he listens to the two bicker, Rory and Lorelai chiming in every so often. If someone had told him a month ago that he would come to like hanging out at the diner with Jess of all people, he would have called them crazy. But here he is.


End file.
